108 Insights Into Yoga

108 Insights into Yoga

Living enlightened master Paramahamsa Nithyananda has spoken hundreds of hours on Yoga and has revealed deep insights into the secrets of Yoga, as it was intended by Patanjali, father of Yoga.

Take a look at 108 insights into Yoga by Paramahamsa Nithyananda that will redefine our very understanding of the most commonly used Sanskrit word – Yoga.

Before knowing what yoga is, it is important to know what yoga is not. It is neither a physical exercise nor is it breath control. These are but a part of yoga.
Yoga is not just moving your body. Yoga is not just concentrating your mind. Yoga is the ultimate happening.
You have invested so much of your time on grooming your body through yoga asana. Instead of transcending body consciousness you have become completely caught up with the body awareness. By doing this, the sublime science of yoga has been reduced to the level of a body workout.
Yoga is for much more than physical health. Physical health is one side effect happening through yoga. Same way, meditation is not for mental well-being. Mental well-being is one side-effect happening by meditation. So the yoga or meditation cannot be reduced just for physical or mental health. It is meant for a deeper purpose, to experience a different space altogether. It is meant to experience eternal bliss, nithyananda.
Eastern mystics declare you are energy. The body is an expression of energy. The body is not just a bio-mechanism as we think. In the Eastern system we call it annamaya kosha, meaning the sheath covering the energy. Having a direct experience or uniting yourself with that energy is what we call yoga.
What is the difference between yoga and meditation? Meditation is a technique to achieve yoga. The word yoga should be understood very deeply. It is not just something to do with the body. Moving the body and doing some asanas will help, but it is not the end. Meditation is a technique to reach the state of yoga.
The aim of yoga is to reach the level of being, or the spirit. All of our yoga and meditation techniques are designed to reach that level. If you can experience that level or stay in that level, you don’t need any meditation or yoga.
To enter into the zone of yoga and the teachings of yoga, you need to be in this moment. Now.
Whenever you are in this moment, yoga is happening in you. You don’t have to bend your body, stand upside down topsy-turvy! If you want to be a yogi, be in this moment. Come into this moment and you are a yogi.
The only thing that keeps you from experiencing yoga is the mind that resists this moment. The mind resists the spontaneous happening.
Yoga is the spontaneous disappearance of the mind.
Not having thoughts, with awareness, is Yoga.
Move away from your illusions. Move away from your hopes. Move away from your fantasies. Move away from your dreams. Come straight to this moment. Yoga will start happening in you.
How do I go beyond the mind to experience yoga? The simple straight understanding is that mind is not an object, mind is not a thing. It is an action. Mind is an action. If you don’t want mind to act, just stop it!
It is simple, if you want you can think. If you want, you can stop. The essence of the whole Yoga is only this one sutra, “yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha”. Yoga is cessation of mind. Yoga is withdrawal from mental thought patterns.
Patanjali says until the state [of samadhi] is experienced there is clutching and identification with thought patterns. There is suffering. The truth is there is no such thing as clutching and suffering! When your mind says, “No, it is not that easy,” then Patanjali also says, “All right, it’s not that easy. I’ll wait for you.”
We are nothing but a collection of unconnected, independent, illogical thoughts. By our very nature we are unclutched. When you are unclutched you are beyond the mind patterns, you are in yoga.
The purpose of Nithya Yoga is to help people to unclutch and to experience the eternal bliss.
To have a glimpse of pure consciousness, for one to have one satori (no-mind state) is not such a big thing, anyone can have. But to stay in that space and to express and radiate that state, a little preparation is needed. Yoga is such a preparation.
What is the meaning of yoga? Yoga does not actually mean ‘union’. Yoga means ‘uniting’. Uniting is a high-energy process and one of intense enthusiasm.
When the ultimate uniting happens intensely from moment to moment, it is eternal. This is Nithya Yoga.
Yoga is a continuous process and, be very clear, the process never ends.
Nithya Yoga is to fall in tune with what is eternal. The one thing that is eternal is the truth of our nature, which is ananda or bliss.
Yoga is not the path TO bliss. Nithya Yoga is the path OF bliss.
Every moment we experience and express this. We are in total and complete union with this bliss, in yoga.
Our body is the result of our own self-hypnosis. Each of us has the power to re-wire every part of the body. All it takes is a shift in awareness. We call it Inner Awakening.
For any purpose that you bend or move your body, that purpose and that memory will be completely inserted or recorded into your body and mind. It will become a memory. Your body itself is made up of memory.
If you strongly believe that by sitting you will have health and you sit just for health, simply health will happen to you.
Nithya Yoga is working towards bliss, experiencing bliss and expressing bliss. The capacity to experience bliss will just explode in your inner space. The capacity to radiate bliss will start happening to your body.
Your system is not ready to radiate that same experience continuously. Nithya Yoga trains your system not only to experience the bliss but also to stabilize the experience within, allowing you to radiate the inner bliss in your lives.
It is not the mastery of asana or pranayama that provides the bliss in the path of yoga, but the intention and awareness while you are doing something that is responsible for making you experience the state of eternal bliss, nithyananda.
Nithya Yoga is not about adding more movements to your life, but more life to your movements.
Nithya Yoga takes root in the ancient science of yoga, as presented by Patanjali over 3000 years ago.
Patanjali is the greatest master ever happened on the planet Earth. Anywhere spiritual truth is expressed as a science directly or indirectly, Patanjali’s role is there in that place.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali express, in very minimum words, the ultimate science of uniting yourself with the whole cosmos and the science of all extraordinary powers.
There are two types of scientists in the world: scientists of the outer world and scientists of the inner world. Scientists of the outer world are those who create formulas to reproduce the outer world experiences. Scientists of the inner world are those who create formulas to reproduce experiences of the inner world–in others. Patanjali was such a scientist. He created a formula, eight yogic practices that would reproduce in others the inner space of Patanjali himself.
Ashtanga Yoga does not mean eight ‘steps’. It means eight ‘parts’ or ‘limbs’. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Prathyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, are not meant to be practiced linearly. If you try to master Yama and Niyama before moving on to the next step, you will never achieve! All eight limbs of ashtanga yoga stem from one experience, which is samadhi.
You do not need to achieve anything outside you to be in yoga. Samadhi is the very basis of your existence. It is your birthright. Claim it!
Yama is the flow and the law. That which makes the whole thing flow as per the law. The law and the force which makes the whole thing to flow in law are one and the same in the cosmos.
Ahimsa: Non-violence. Violence first burns you before you give it to others. Having violence towards someone is wasting your life. You got stuck in someone else’s life. You are wasting your time and energy in someone else’s life.
Satya: Talking about these truths is just one dimension of truth. Understanding the truths of life is satya. Your whole body, mind and speech aligned to the truth is satya.
Asteya: Non-stealing. Living with minimal things brings a tremendous peace to your being. By being established in non-stealing all wealth comes to you.
Bramacharya: living like God, an extraordinary ecstasy, freedom from the other without having the need to depend on another body for pleasure. It is a wealth to be enjoyed.
Aparigraha: Being non-greedy and living with minimal things is one the greatest wealth’s you can acquire because your body and mind are accustomed to live wherever you want. It is a great freedom.
Aparigraha is responsible for the wellness of your body. You will understand the meaning of wellness when you don’t possess your body. Possessing of the body is directly connected to the digestive system. Non-possessiveness will completely heal your body.
Niyama is to increase your understanding to the higher and higher levels through the right ideas.
Creating the highest possible coherence in your body is Niyama.
A man who can do this in his body is an enlightened man. He who is trying to create this in his body is a seeker. He who can create the same highest possible coherence in few people is an enlightened mystic. He who can create in large number of bodies with sadhana is an enlightened master. He who can create this in any number of bodies just by His presence is an Incarnation.
Saucha is purity of the senses. If you live with the awareness that you are untouched by the senses, like the tamarind fruit inside its shell, that you live through the body, then you will naturally be established in purity.
Santosha is the simple contentment with life, feeling blissful for no reason. Through straight contentment, the supreme joy can be achieved.
There is no shortcut to contentment or bliss. Just decide, from now on: be content! The moment your mind tells everything is ok, but… You lost the thread of contentment.
Tapas is not penance as we think. Any practices that take you to closer to Sat–Truth, Chit-Intelligence and Ananda-Bliss. If you go to sleep with a deep awareness of being falling in tune with your formless nature, then even sleep can be tapas!
Going through the spiritual practice with trust and faith until the experience happens, that period of time is what we call tapas.
Swadhayaya is the continual learning: reading, understanding and raising your intellectual capability to grasp the truth. If it is done, you can raise the consciousness of a civilization.
Iswara pranidhana is surrendering and relaxing into the cosmos. Even if one person relaxes into the cosmos, the consciousness raises so much.
Prepare your bio-memory for the intense spiritual experience with asana. When the non-mechanical parts of the brain are awakened, your body should be capable of holding and radiating it in a proper way. Asana will increase the sensitivity and make the experience stay forever.
Tuning yourself to the cosmos through particular body postures is what we call asana.
Patanjali says: “Sthira sukham asanam”. The way in which you tune yourself to the cosmos should be steady and comfortable for you.
Your body is the mirror. The light coming to the mirror is the cosmic light. You need to align the mirror to a certain posture where the cosmic light reflects itself without distortion or deflection. That tuning is asana.
Respecting your body, raising your body to the highest possible spiritual conscious coherence is asana.
Find the right set of postures for you and increase the ability to practice, by doing the asanas again and again. You should experience sweet pain like nectar the whole day!
The sweet feeling, which comes in your body by practicing asana is what Patanjali calls sukha.
When you align your body, it levitates; when you malign your body, it gravitates.
The right postures align your consciousness to the cosmos.
How can the body be aligned to the super consciousness? With effort, work intensely in those postures, and continuously meditate on the infinite cosmos and unclutch.
After achieving a steady and comfortable posture, learning to breathe without thinking is the science of pranayama.
Prana is air movement without thoughts. Cessation of air movements with thoughts is what I call pranayama. If the thoughts are awakened ALONG with the air movement, you are not taking in life energy.
These are the five prana movements in your body: Inhaling, holding, spreading all over your system (muscle memory, mind, brain, all parts of you), exhaling and cleansing.
Balancing your five breath movements naturally will lead to physical health, mental wellness, emotional fulfillment, awakening the non-mechanical parts of the brain, anti-aging and the ultimate enlightenment.
The technology of purifying your bio-memory is pranayama.
If you can absorb the highest frequency in your body without awakening thoughts, you are in tune with what Patanjali calls pranayama.
The whole purpose of pranayama is breathing without thinking.
Whenever there is thinking, breathing only takes air inside. Prana is the pure life energy. Breathing with more thoughts means less prana. This is what we call depression.
Breathing with less thoughts means more prana. It means more life energy to live, create, express, share, radiate, and celebrate!
Yogic body means: squeezing the body and taking the tamas (inertia, laziness) out of it. When you do yoga or weight lifting the pain that happens in you is due to tamas. The amount of pain is directly related to tamas in your body. Pain is your silent cooperation to tamas in your body.
When you absorb the pranic energy directly from the cosmos, all mood swings will disappear. As long as you have mood swings you will not be honest to the decisions about your life.
Create a yogic body with an intense workout. With 1,200 long exhale during the workout, the kundalini shakti directly gets awakened.
The heavy yoga and workout will lead to breathing without thinking, and the pure absorption of prana. The whole day you will see that the thinking is not happening. You will automatically settle down with the greatest truths of life.
In pratyahara you withdraw your awareness from so many objects. If your awareness is not centered on yourself, you will be bound by too many fears.
Your mind works through your senses and experiences the world through sensual pleasures or pain. Now, the stuff out of which your mind is made, if it withdraws from sensory activities and returns to the source, that is what we call pratyahara.
The science and ability to project anything you want and enjoy it is dharana.
Dharana is not just concentration. Removing the cover does not mean just concentration of the mind. It is the opening of the mind to release what it carries in a seed form.
Dharana is to tune yourself to a state of consciousness, where the extraordinary energy can be expressed in you, as easily as breathing.
Dharana is the technique or method through which your mind is fixed on some object, truth or idea and your consciousness is altered to a higher frequency so that the extraordinary powers, experiences and energies can express through your body and mind.
First you understand the laws of life, then raise yourself to the highest possible consciousness, then balance your body, then prepare your muscle memory, then awaken the ability to absorb prana without breathing and now the mind is ready to express what it carries.
Dhyana is raising the mind’s frequency, to a certain level so that the object on which the meditation is happening and the object which is meditating (mediator) both of them loose their boundary and become one with each other.
When you raise your frequency, you will have intense joy, peace and bliss. Not only the mind, but the object on which you have been meditating lose their boundary and become one with the origin from where both came out.
The stuff out of which your mind is made of and the stuff out of which the object your mind is meditating on is made, both stuff disappearing into one ultimate space frequency. That space where not even a trace of the mind stuff or the object stuff exists in any form is called samadhi.
What is the difference between dhyana and samadhi? In dhyana (meditation) the mind and the object both lose their name and form into a certain frequency, which is beyond the mind and the object meditated upon. In samadhi, not only do they lose their form, even the stuff out of which both are made loses its form, name and changes frequency into the highest space.
In dhyana the possibility for return exists, in samadhi the possibility for return doesn’t exist. Samadhi is a non-return zone. It is not the end of your spiritual life, it is the beginning of your spiritual life.
Samadhi means not just having altered state of consciousness but achieving the ultimate quality of leadership.
There are two major components in spiritual practice. Doing an intense practice and feeling responsible for the position you have chosen. First the person has to do the strong intense tapas such as pranayama. This will give the quantitative work, the tapas. Next thing that should happen is being responsible for the space you occupy. That will make you to experience the qualitative shift, if not you will be stuck in pratyahara and unable to move into the next stage. Unfortunately people don’t learn to be responsible for the position they are holding.
If you take up responsibility and allow the creativity to happen in that responsibility, then you will sail from dharana to dhyana to samadhi.
Not only are dharana to dhyana and samadhi deeper than the previous five, they are not just quantitatively deeper, they are qualitatively deeper and each one is qualitatively deeper than the previous one.
If you are feeling stuck in your spiritual practice, if you are doing 108 times Surya Namaskar and other practices and not progressing, you are stuck in pratyahara with a worker mentality. Maybe corners of your mind are playing double games. You are not responsible to your position. Just add responsibility, the same 108 will push you from prathyahara to dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
When you take up the responsibility, a tremendous courage and security will happen around you. Till you take the responsibility, you will suffer with insecurity. It is an automatic mechanism given by God.
Pratyahara cannot lead to dharana, dhyana and samadhi just by practice, you need one more component to be added, the pratyagatma chaitanya needs to be added. The inner awakening should happen. The difference between these states is not just quantitative, it is qualitative from here on.
Dharana-the object on which you are concentrating, and the stuff out of which the object is made, when these two feel connected, it is dharana. The mind flows in an unbroken way from the mind to the object. When both lose their boundary and come closer, it is called dhyana. When the stuff out of which both are made loses their identity into something from which both came, it is samadhi.
Ripening to a point where the extraordinary power of the mind manifests is what we call siddhi.
In the cosmos, not only the experience of samadhi even the path to samadhi itself is a bliss.
Samadhi is not an end result. Samadhi is not an explosion of bliss that happens to a favored few. Whenever we live with awareness in the moment, totally and completely absorbed in whatever we are doing, we are in samadhi.
If you direct your awareness towards any direction, you will simply know anything there is to know about the object of your attention, that is what Patanjali calls samyama.
Samyama is the technology through which the extraordinary experiences in your consciousness are expressed through your body to the world. Your consciousness is all knowing, all pervading. Preparing your body and mind to radiate some of those great powers and expressing those powers, that technology is samyama.
The science of samyama is the technology through which concentration, contemplation, meditator and meditated become one.
To retain energy in your system you need a strong nervous system and subtle grooves in your brain. For a strong nervous system you need to do heavy yoga and for subtle grooves you need to do intense unclutching.
YOGA is not just the path of bliss it is the science of bliss. Science means it will be reproduce-able in all. Through the practice of yoga impurities are removed, leading you to discriminative discernment and light of wisdom.
Nithya Yoga prepares your body and mind to hold and radiate the ultimate energy of enlightenment.
Nithya Yoga is the ultimate Yogic body, Vedic mind and eN-Living.